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For all the talk of making undocumented workers pay “back taxes,” the reality is that most illegal immigrants already pay some taxes. As for those who don’t, it could be difficult to estimate their wages from years ago to find how much they owe now — if they owe anything at all.

Still, it’s an idea that helps soften the politically charged perception of immigration reform to skeptics, and it’s part of the bipartisan, but still vague, Senate proposal to offer the estimated 11 million U.S.-based undocumented workers a path to legal residency. Plus, President Barack Obama mentioned it in his Tuesday speech on immigration reform.

“Shouldn’t citizens pay back taxes?” asked Sen. John McCain, a prominent member of the group.

The Arizona Republican told POLITICO it’s totally possible to collect the money: “We can trace their employment back. It doesn’t take a genius.”

In theory, Madeline Zavodny, a visiting scholar at the conservative American Enterprise Institute, agrees with McCain, but she says it could deter illegal residents from coming out of the shadows.

“On the one hand you want to say, ‘Oh, let’s have a big fine!’ because we want them to pay for breaking the law and we want to raise government revenue,” said the professor of economics at Georgia-based Agnes Scott College. “But on the other hand, the bigger you make the fee, the further back you go with back taxes, the less likely people will be to file because they can’t afford it. So you’re not accomplishing your goal of legalizing this population.”

Indeed, immigration policy experts on both sides of political spectrum say this is easier said than done — and maybe even not worth the hassle for the tiny pool of cash it would bring to the Treasury.

“It sounds politically smart, but it’s not a lot of money,” she says.

The lawmakers who outlined the tentative overhaul — which will be officially introduced as legislation in early March — have not said whether there would be a cap on the total fines owed, or whether undocumented workers would have to pay taxes on all income they earned in the U.S., or just for a year or two.

The group admits its proposal lacks specifics — and maybe that’s the point.

One author, Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.), told POLITICO he doesn’t know how the IRS would go about collecting taxes immigrants owed on income they earned years ago.

Immigration reform is a sensitive subject, especially for Republicans. Some in the GOP for years have contended that foreign nationals who break the law and cross into the United States without permission — or overstay their visas — should be booted from American borders, not offered green cards.

At first glance, it may seem that the Treasury would be getting a nice plus-up if 11 million people suddenly started paying taxes from years ago.

Still, the reality is that between 50 and 70 percent of illegal immigrants who work already pay taxes.

Many of them use fake or stolen Social Security numbers to secure jobs, and payroll and income taxes are already withheld. Some claim tax credits — much to the chagrin of some conservatives.

Other undocumented workers are using authentic IRS identification numbers, known as ITINs, to pay income taxes. ITINs are offered to nonresident foreign nationals who don’t qualify for Social Security benefits but still have to pay taxes. The IRS issues ITINs regardless of immigration status, according to the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration.

Undocumented immigrants have some obvious incentives to voluntarily apply for an ITIN and pay income taxes, experts say.

“They get the refundable child tax credit,” said AEI’s Zavodny, noting that the reward for having children applies to more than just American citizens.

Child tax credit claims filed by immigrants using ITINs have quadrupled over the past few years, growing from $929 million in 2005 to $4.2 billion in 2010.

But there’s another reason: They think it could bolster their bids for legal residency in the future.

“Many of them are trying to play by the rules as much as they can and pay their taxes so they’ve created a record of their employment history and their commitment to the rule of law,” Marshall Fitz, the director of immigration policy at the liberal Center for American Progress, told POLITICO. “So if and when we get immigration reform accomplished, they will be well situated to move forward.”

Future taxes levied on illegal-turned-legal immigrants are estimated to bring in a considerable chunk of money — as much as $4 billion to $5 billion a year, in some cases.

Still, the reality is that between 50 and 70 percent of illegal immigrants who work already pay taxes.

But even if the IRS was able to track down income history for the 30-50 percent of illegal immigrants that don’t pay taxes, Treasury would likely spend more processing the back taxes than it brought in, says Steven Camarota, the director of research at the Center for Immigration Studies, a group that supports limiting immigration.

That’s because many illegal immigrants do not earn enough to pay income taxes. Single filers earning about $9,000 or less, or heads of households earning about $20,000 or less, are exempt from federal income taxes. That’s the income range in which many of the immigrants who would seek citizenship would likely fall.

“Unless you were to create a robust enforcement regime, for which there are no resources, you would not be able to collect anything from this,” Camarota said.

Not to mention it would create a flood of families owed refundable credits like the earned income tax credit or the child tax credit.

Despite the cost, sniffing out how much undocumented workers owe in back taxes could prove onerous, and costly, due to the lack of paper trail.

Consider the $450 billion, so-called tax gap: The IRS has a hard enough time collecting taxes from citizens and legal immigrants who have loads of documentation on file with employers.

Employees who have been working under the table for years could easily sidestep the tax by saying they lost the relevant paperwork.

“They could underreport what their earnings were if suddenly they’re going to have to pay taxes on them,” says AEI’s Zavodny.

Companies who employ these workers now are subject to hefty fines if they’re caught.

The IRS could work with businesses to collect payroll data to establish back taxes — if the company kept records on illegal immigrants. But to assuage fears from businesses that they would not be punished, Congress would likely have to offer amnesty to companies that came forward.

Regardless, these companies would probably be identified in the back tax process, Zavodny says, because “unless you were self-employed, you’re going to have to reveal who your employer was.”

Another challenge to consider: The tax might deter illegal immigrants from coming forward should they find that they don’t have enough money to pay back taxes, thwarting the very goal the immigration proposal set out to achieve.

So why include a back-tax in a comprehensive immigration package? Because it is popular, says Camarota.

“This is not a provision to generate income, it is a provision to create the allusion of toughness the public likes,” Camarota said. “It is exclusively a public relations gimmick. The public likes the idea of illegal immigrants paying back taxes, therefore you put it in your bill even if the way you put it in your bill is impractical and entirely unenforceable.”

Fitz agreed.

“This is really more a question of principle than policy to drive resources,” Fitz said. “It’s about accountability and establishing accountability across all payers and stakeholders in the system.”

Kelsey Snell and Steven Sloan contributed to this report.

This article first appeared on POLITICO Pro at 5:20 a.m. on January 30, 2013.